Field Recording: Capturing audio for podcasting, qualitative research, environmental science, art, music, and more!
Do you want to get outside for your interviews and focus groups, ecological study, or creative practice? While some interviews are best held indoors in a studio like those at Lyons New Media Centre, there are a million reason to leave the recording studio behind. This can include capturing natural or ambient sounds, making a podcast richer with audio from daily life, or going to an interview subject’s home turf so they feel a bit more comfortable. This 3-hour intensive will give you hands-on experience with field recording for a range of purposes.
A trifecta of experts will boost your technical and creative decision-making:
- Sam Hansen brings experience field recording for their podcast productions, working with the BBC, NPR, CBC on tape syncs, and setting up mics outside the studio.
- Lyons’ own Carlie King will introduce you to their field recording equipment kits (with H6 and H4 zoom recorders) and share details on microphone recording patterns.
- Danica Evering will give practical overview of approaches to recording with future editing and artistic choices in mind.
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Record intentional audio outdoors and in unconventional indoor environments.
- Select appropriate microphone and recording devices for their desired use case, as well as windscreens and other peripherals
- Locate campus resources for field recording
- Prepare to make creative decisions with field recordings
This session is designed for absolute beginners who have no experience with field recording but we also welcome audio enthusiasts who want to find community. We will intentionally keep this very interdisciplinary to reach anyone looking to record audio: from Health Sciences researchers recording interviews in busy clinical settings to ecologists and biologists looking to study bioacoustics of bird song to iArts (Integrated Arts) undergrads working on a multimedia project. Come record with us!
Workshop Preparation
No preliminary work or equipment is required, but if you’d like, bring your own headphones, a notebook and pen/pencil, your own recording equipment that you want to try out or share, and a refillable water bottle.
Facilitator Bio
Danica Evering is a Research Data Management Specialist grounded in curiosity and a deep commitment to ethics. Danica is available to help students, postdocs, faculty, and staff with RDM through the data lifecycle—Data Management Plans, storage and backup, data security, data sharing. With an MA in Media Studies, Danica fosters active interest in RDM across disciplines, with a knack for engaging researchers who might not even realize they have data to manage. Outside of work they sing in a choir, play PC games, maintain an art writing practice, grow a garden, contribute Wikipedia articles, and run.
Workshop Slides
Coming soon.